Long Term Evolution (LTE) is an emerging fourth-generation (4G) wireless access technology developed by members of the 3rd-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission techniques are an important enabler of the high data rates sought to be achieved by LTE. An LTE Base Station (known as an eNodeB, or eNB, in 3GPP terminology) is expected to select and switch transmission characteristics of these transmission modes based on a number of radio frequency (RF) signal quality indicators, such as Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI), Rank Indicator, Block Level Error Rate (BLER), uplink measurements, etc.
However, MIMO activation leads to more battery and resources consumption. Moreover the increased signal (multiple antenna ports used for uplink and/or downlink transmissions) can result in more interference, e.g., to mobile terminals (“user equipment” or “UEs” in 3GPP terminology) that are near a mobile terminal participating in a MIMO transmission. Since users will not be using high data speeds all the time, opportunities are available for optimizing resource consumption and reducing interference while maintaining a high quality UE user experience.